coup

All of those democratic reforms are out the window.  Yes, there has been violence in Pakistan but the answer isn’t more state control.  Instead it is confronting Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations in Pakistan.  Musharraf had let this thing grow over the last couple of years and he chose to make packs and treatise with groups in the north.  That allowed the extremists to get a foot hole and grow.

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From WaPo:

“He’s pretty much carrying out a second coup,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, an analyst. “For all practical purposes, it is direct military rule. And he becomes the supreme ruler of Pakistan. There’s no constitutional limit on him because he’s set aside the constitution.”

Rizvi said that Musharraf’s stated reasons for declaring an emergency were misleading. “It has nothing to do with the insurgency,” he said. “It has to do with Musharraf’s political survival.”   (more…)